Televisions are popular with consumers. Because of advances in recent technology, television-watching has evolved into a multimedia experience. For example, consumers may now watch TV in high-definition on a large flat-screen with stereo surround sound in the comfort of their homes. Also, consumers may select to view from an ever increasing variety of TV content catered specifically to the preferences of each consumer. Consumers may select from an electronic on-screen program guide to find and watch desired programs without bulky paper-bound guides. However, TV service providers may provide limited TV content to consumers due to the limited broadcasting capacity of the existing infrastructure. Content providers try to offer a service line-up that consists of the most popular programming, following an engineering principle that 20% of the content made available is watched by 80% of the consumer base. The less-traditional programming, or less frequently viewed programming, also known as long-tail content is eliminated from the broadcasting lineup. Many service providers are now making long-tail content available to consumers using 3 primary methods of distribution. The first method is switched digital broadcast (SDB), which is deployed in traditional QAM environments; the second method is to make long-tail content available through a different portal such as an on-demand interface. This is usually done in non real-time, where the content is loaded onto an on-demand system long after the content has been broadcast; the third method is to use IP multicast to deliver long-tail content to consumers. In all of these service models, the consumer may view the long-tail content only when the consumer subscribes to long-tail content service. As a result, the traditional long-tail content broadcasting system may be burdensome to consumers by requiring consumers to tune to a different portal/channel to receive the long-tail content. Also, the traditional long-tail content broadcasting system may be limited by the broadcasting capacity of the existing infrastructure, requiring the service provider to deploy switched digital equipment or an IP multicast support infrastructure. This system provides the ability to deliver long-tail content using IP unicast as a delivery method.